Three tactical things we noticed from Man City’s routine win over Fulham

In a routine afternoon of football, Manchester City beat Fulham 3-0.

City scored early and were never really troubled by their ambitious visitors. But the game still carried interest from a tactical point-of-view. Here we have a look at three tactical things that stood out as the Champions cruised to victory.

1. Sané shines away from Mendy

Leroy Sané was a phenomenal player for Manchester City last season. An essential component of their immaculate 100 point title win with 10 goals and 15 assists in the Premier League alone. He looked a sure shot to star for Germany in the World Cup, but then didn’t even make the squad!

People were puzzled but, City fans reasoned, this would at least be good for them. Sané would have a summer of rest and then spend the whole of pre-season with the team and be fit and firing by the time the season kicked-off in earnest. But this didn’t happen; Sané failed to shine and suddenly there were rumours about his attitude being the reason he had so seldom featured.

Turn out the issue was purely tactical. In 2017/18, Sané was City’s width on the left. He played as an orthodox touchline-hugging winger. He was wide, stretching opponents, and his cutbacks were a huge source of creativity for City. The thing is, with Benjamin Mendy in the side, that role no longer exists.

Mendy is one of the world’s best crossers of a ball, so with him playing high and wide and sending in those crosses and cutbacks, Sané on the left becomes superfluous. So he didn’t start, because what would be the point? Either he’d get in Mendy’s way or Mendy would overpower him and he’d become vestigial.

Against Fulham, with Mendy rested, Sané started and suddenly it was like we had been transported to 2017/18 again. The German winger opened the scoring after two minutes, and thereafter continued to shine in something more like his previous role. Although he was also given freedom to roam and swap flanks with Raheem Sterling (which is where his goal came from), he continued to thrive out on the left, looking comfortable again as the side’s main source of width.

2. Bernardo Silva is the new De Bruyne

When Kevin De Bruyne was ruled out for three months through injury, many feared Manchester City’s season may be in danger. After all De Bruyne was their best player and arguably the best in the whole division (certainly he was the league’s top midfielder). So how would City cope without him?

Simple: Bernardo Silva.

The Portuguese attacking midfielder was signed last season but spent the majority of the title campaign coming off the bench as he adapted to English football. It was a bit disappointing given how electric he had been for Monaco as they surged their way to win Ligue 1, but it turns out that adaptation period was crucial.

Silva has hit the ground running this season, whether playing in central midfield and running the show in the Community Shield or playing higher and still effecting things in an inverted wing role. Silva has been special, and now is stepping into the De Bruyne gap with ease.

Against Fulham so much of what City did ran through Silva; a superb midfielder, it’s his ability to keep the ball moving amongst his team-mates before finding a killer ball from nowhere that has allowed him to so effectively become City’s main playmaker.

Silva was the chief architect of the Sky Blues’ second goal, and the timing, strength and vision he showed to help his side settle the contest was exactly the kind of moment you’d have expected Kevin De Bruyne to produce. He kept on going in the second half and could (perhaps should?) have added a fourth goal for his side. Nevertheless, he was voted man of the match and looked every bit capable of dominating the league much like De Bruyne did before him.

3. City’s autopilot still flies

When you’re defending a league title, you have to evolve tactically. If you stay the same, your efforts will end in failure. That’s why only two managers (Sir Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho) have retained the Premier League in its history and the last of those was literally a decade ago.

So Pep knows he has to evolve, and the continual improvement of Sergio Aguero will help with that. As will Raheem Sterling’s evolution into a consistent goal-threat and the aforementioned emergence of Bernardo Silva. Benjamin Mendy is an almost literal gamechanger and Riyad Mahrez gives them a multitude of options in attack whilst Aymeric Laporte will become their heir to Vincent Kompany.

But constant evolution can be tiring, and slip-ups can occur as you try and implement a new tactic or shape. Things can go wrong, essentially, and the margin for error when trying to retain a league title is very narrow indeed. That’s why you need an autopilot. You need to be able to return to your title-winning shape at a moment’s notice and have it be effective as though it was the previous season.

And today, City showed their autopilot was still operational. Pep Guardiola’s men lined up in a shape and with an XI that was essentially what they would have done last season, and they played superbly. All the old connections still functioned, synapses fired again, and Manchester City cruised to victory.

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